The described embodiments relate to electronic systems, and more particularly, to devices and methods for connecting electrical components within electronic systems.
In electronic devices that utilize a circuit board, there are a number of different mechanisms for linking two electrical components, such as the circuit board and a circuit element such as a resistor, capacitor, etc. For example, such circuit elements may have leads that are mounted in plated through holes in the circuit board, known as “through hole” technology, or on contact pads on the surface of the circuit board, known as “surface mount” technology. The plated through holes and the contact pads are electrically connected to a conductive pattern of traces on the surface and/or in various layers of the circuit board. The circuit elements may then be soldered to the circuit board to complete a circuit and form a working electronic device.
One drawback of “through hole” and “surface mount” technology, however, is that each circuit element takes up space on the surface of the circuit board. With an increasing demand for more complex electronic devices, an increasing number of circuit elements are required, which thereby requires an increased amount of circuit board surface area for mounting the circuit elements. Additionally, there is an increasing demand for mobile electronic devices, with an emphasis on compact design. Thus, there is a demand for mounting an increasing number of circuit elements onto a circuit board having the smallest possible area.
To address this need, some components are electrically linked through pin and socket type connectors. Pin and socket connectors may directly mate adjacent components, or the components may be positioned at any convenient location with the pin and socket connectors linked together by flexible cables. These types of connectors include ribbon cable connectors and pig tail connectors. These pin and socket type connectors have a number of drawbacks, however, such as a relatively high cost due to the number and complexity of the parts of the connector. Additionally, pin and socket type connectors require relatively high tolerances between the mating pins and sockets. Further, the ribbon cable and pig tail type flexible connectors may be inadvertently left in the unconnected state during assembly or rework, leading to additional costs associated with discovering and correcting this error.
Other types of connectors include compression connectors, which consist of a plastic body that houses spring-like leads extending out of the top of the body that resiliently compress when contacted with a mating component. A drawback is that these types of connectors take up a substantial amount of circuit board space as they are sized to accommodate various bends in the metal leads to achieve the spring-like characteristic. Further, these types of connectors typically include gull-wing leads, extending from a bottom portion of the body, that are soldered to the circuit board. These projecting gull-wing leads further reduce the available space for mounting or connecting additional circuit elements to the circuit board. Additionally, gull-wing solder joints are known to fail when subjected to static compressive loads and cyclic compressive loads. Many electronic devices, such as any device having a phone keypad, a QWERTY keyboard, and navigation or gaming keys, are typically subjected to both static and cyclic compressive loads due to the many key presses over time. Such compressive loads have been known to cause failures due to broken gull-wing solder joints between a circuit board and a component, or in board-to-board connections.
Thus, devices and methods for connecting electrical components are desired which increase the number of circuit elements that can be connected in a given limited area of a circuit board space, and that can better withstand static and cyclic compressive loading.